Pally Power replacement, feedback/suggestions wanted
 

Note! Mod has been released, see Paladin Buffer : WoWInterface Downloads : Beta-version AddOns


Tried out Pally Power, hate the interface for blessings as well as not being that well designed (both code and interface) and it leaks global variables like a sieve. So, I'm going to make my own. I want to get a good idea of what people use in Pally Power to help with designing both the interface and the feature set, since it's a lot harder to add communication code than it is to remove it once the mods released.

Free assignments: Pug raids and parties are the only time I can see this being useful, but people don't seem to have issues giving a Paladin assist, and worse case it could be made to work if they had main assist. As for parties, as long as they are a Paladin they should be able to set it, doing fancy permissions doesn't make that much sense.

Symbol counts: If they are out of symbols they will realize that quickly enough anyway (And what Paladin doesn't carry symbols on purpose?)

Buffing frame: Do people use the mouse over window to see when to buff. An option to buff once x% of the class is there as well as a little indicator showing how many are out of range/offline/dead sounds more helpful.

Is showing both greater and single blessing times needed, in fact is a different button/binding/click combo for greater vs single blessings necessary, it's all done smartly out of combat so just knowing that you need to click the button to rebuff people sounds more useful.

Blessing interface: When you have more than 4 Paladins and can cover every single Blessing in the raid, do you try and spread out the assignments? As in, is it really necessary to show that 2 Paladins can do Kings, when 2 other Paladins can cover Improved Wisdom/Might, and a 5th can cover Sanctuary

Smart assignments: Come 3.1, it'll be a lot easier to identify specs without having to actually inspect everyone would there be interest in a smart assignment feature where if you don't have enough Paladins to cover greater blessings, it will automatically assign singles as well.

The "smart" assignments from Pally Power would still be added, but they would be called something like quick assignments as they aren't that smart.

I'm really glad someone else has a strong dislike for Pally Power as well. I wish you God speed in getting this created.

Anyway, one thing I'd like to see is the ability to set templates for the Paladins in my raid. We're always all the same spec so Pally Power's instructions never change yet I have to set them every time. If I could save a custom blessing template for a raid with two Paladins in and one with three, that'd be awesome. I have something like the way Talented's templates work in my mind as a general guide.

With regards to symbol counts, you could make it so that your mod is load-on-demand and, when it does, a line of text is displayed in chat to tell you how many symbols you're currently carrying. Alternatively, if the mod is going to be constant, just have it show that line of text again as the party is converted into a raid.

Another option I'd like to see is to be able to make the mod completely disappear if that's what I want to do. Also, to have it invisible unless I mouse over it's area (though that's more cosmetic and less practical).

Templates I'll think about, but a quick assignment seems like it will cover what is needed short of single blessings, and those you can't really template anyway as easily.

How many symbols you're carrying is shown on the actual blessing icon in most interfaces, I mean for other people not yourself.

Probably not going to have it disappear unless you mouse over it, but it will have the option to only be enabled inside an instance, as well as auto hiding in combat.

Have you taken a look at ZOMGBuffs? It does a lot of what you're requesting.

My understanding is that PallyPower won't take assignments from other raid members that don't have assist -- maybe you could change it so that there's at least an option to take assignments?

ZOMGBuffs, as the previous poster mentions, is great; it's what I'm currently using on all my toons. It's pretty smart about blessings, although I've had a few times recently where it hasn't picked up talent changes between our different Holy Paladins when I'm not assist.

ZOMGBuffs will also auto-buy symbols to your preferred level when you get to a vendor, and has an overview of what buffs everyone has if you're the kind who likes to check not only that you put wisdom on the locks, but that they got AI from that forgetful mage. I really recommend it for pretty much any class; it will prompt you when your buffs are about to run out, including most self-buffs. (It doesn't cover seals for some reason.)

This isn't a request, I'm making this.

ZOMGBuffs does far more than I want and it still does some silly things like sending a message with your total symbols every single time it changes, meaning if rebuff 11 classes it will send 11 messages reflecting the change from 100 -> 89.

Until patch 3.0.8 it used to be possible to buff people with those even in-combat, the mouse over window did not disappear if you moved your mouse into it from the general class button. That was incredibly useful in cases where you had to do a single blessing on one specific individual, especially back when single blessings lasted 5 minutes since you frequently had to rebuff mid-fight then. It's the feature I definitely miss most at the moment.

So in short, I don't use those now as they lost some of their functionality, but they were very useful when they still worked completely.

It already does this. The "Free Assign" checkbox in the lower left corner of the options window, when checked, will allow other raid members to modify your assignment regardless of their raid leader/assist status.



Anyway, apart from code cleanup and the player windows being fixed, there is nothing about Pally Power that I would want changed. The one exception might be removing the "one-button-blessing" feature; I much prefer having precision control over what the addon does via left/right clicking, versus using one button for everything and hoping that the code does what I want it to do.

I also don't see why people are complaining about setting up the assignments; it takes all of 15-20 seconds to go through and set Pally Power up. For those that don't know, shift + left clicking on a player's assignment will change said assignment for all classes. It seems to me many of the complaints people are having in this thread come less from the addon itself, and more from lack of knowledge of how to use it.

That's what I wanted to know, thanks. But it sounds odd that it wouldn't work anymore, will have to play with the secure stuff and see if it's really not possible anymore.

Just because an addon works doesn't mean it cannot be done better, if the only criteria that people used before making another mod was "Does anyone have something like this that works?" you would have a lot less options to choose from.

I like everything you mention in the OP, and have a few more suggestions:

1. Add a functionality to minimize the interface so it can easily be brought up with a click of a button, but would be hidden when you don't need it. Pally Power is just an eyesore...

2. If possible, have it integrate with Pally Power. The toughest thing about replacing a standard add on is getting everyone else in the world on board, and I'd rather not deal with the raid using ZOMGBuffs, PallyPower, AND this and have none of them know what the other is doing.

It'll hide in combat, and I can add a key binding to toggle expended blessing interface or simplified (one button with the lowest time on it/etc) so you only have a small square shown out of combat most of the time. As for being able to do single blessings from mousing over pop out frames, that can be added in without much issue but probably not in the first release.

The code for sending/receiving PallyPower syncs is in but I have to test actually sending them, since ZOMGBuffs supported syncing with PallyPower I'm not going to worry about that.

I really liked the way PallyPower used to work. You had the mouseover window that popped up and from there you could right click single target buffs or just left click greater blessings.

PallyPower also doesn't work very well in combat.

I'd like to see a Seal Timer.

I felt the auto buff utility for PallyPower was never useful.

I'd also like a more minimal friendly addon with PallyPower's function.

I have to say I feel the best addons are ones that right when you download you don't have to change anything unless you want to. The best addons also have the most flexibility but are not too complex.

I'm not sure how popular this idea would be, but maybe having a bar slightly over or under the minimap with the timer for all buffs on all classes would be neat as well and when left clicked opened up a larger version of it with the option to buff and change buffs. Since I use a square style minimap this would look really nice in my UI.

Good luck buddy. :)

A lot of the combat limitations are simply due to Blizzard restrictions, most of the buffing can be done in combat but you can't use a single key binding to buff everyone. It will not do seal timers, especially now that they are 30 minutes it won't even do Righteous Fury.

It won't let you configure through the buff timers frames because it would basically require duplicating the configuration twice. Ultimately my goal once 3.1 comes around is to have the assignment logic be smart enough that it will handle assigning everything including single buffs based on spec so that you barely have to even use it. The actual blessing frame isn't finished yet, but it will likely work fine with any kind of UI regardless of where you want to place it.


For Warlock pets, do they get anything out of Blessing of Might, or only Wisdom and Kings?


[edit] Ugh posted early, fixed.

Sounds useful. Every pet in-game except for the Imp would like to have Blessing of Might.

Just a note to consider on the topic of pets:

Greater Blessings cast on Felhunters, Succubi, and Imps will also be applied to warlocks. Those cast on Felguards, Voidwalkers, and hunter pets will also be applied to warriors. I believe that those cast on ghouls will also be applied to rogues (can someone confirm?). This also works in reverse, in that blessings cast on those classes will also apply to those pets. That means that the paladin assigned to blessing wisdom on warlocks cannot use greater blessings to also apply might to a felhunter; one will overwrite the other.

One problem with PallyPower is that it doesn't try to create this distinction between the pet types, and thus its automatic buffing is rather hit and miss with a mix of pet types. It could be better to have the mod recognize pets as members of the appropriate class, perhaps.